[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 53 (Thursday, March 19, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1825-S1827]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CORONAVIRUS
Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, like my colleague from Missouri, I also
rise to address the Nation's response to the COVID-19 virus. In
particular, I want to discuss the next steps we need to take at the
Federal level to deal with this health emergency and the severe
economic dislocation resulting from it.
Before I offer my comments, I want to offer some thanks. I want to
thank the Senate staff and all those in the Capitol who are working
here under tough circumstances.
I notice that the pages are not here, and that is because the Senate
has wisely decided that, while we ought to be here doing the people's
business, even at some risk to ourselves, the young people who would
normally be here should be home with their families.
I want to thank healthcare workers all across the United States. They
are doing very difficult work right now, and they are doing it under
very stressful circumstances. So many people who work at our healthcare
facilities are there trying to protect patients. They have kids in
schools that have been closed, and they are grappling with where their
own children are during the day and whether they can find childcare
during what would normally be the school day. I particularly want to
thank them.
Finally, I want to thank the American public. I will return to this
point at the end of my comments.
We are not an authoritarian nation. There are steps that other
nations are taking with respect to this virus, where they can sort of
order or quarantine in ways that we can't here. What we do here depends
upon the consent of the governed, and the guidelines about social
distancing, for example, require some significant sacrifice.
Overwhelmingly, I see Americans taking steps to make that sacrifice,
and I want to thank them.
I applaud the bipartisan work that Congress has done with the White
House in the past 2 weeks to pass two important laws. We passed the
supplemental appropriations bill, providing more than $8 billion to
invest in our public health response with resources for States,
territories, and Tribes, investments in vaccine development and
testing, and other key health priorities.
Just yesterday, the Senate passed the second piece of legislation to
provide emergency relief for workers and their families: paid sick
leave, extended unemployment insurance, and other measures. But we
still have so much more to do, and I am going to be very candid about
this.
I offer these thoughts as a former mayor and Governor who has
overseen significant emergency response efforts in my city and in my
State: hurricanes, floods, mass shootings, the H1N1 epidemic, and the
economic collapse of 2008 and 2009. While those give me a perspective
on what must be done, I have to acknowledge that the current challenge
is a massive one, arguably bigger than any I have seen in my life.
Because it is so big, it will require unusual degrees of innovation and
cooperation, and the need for that innovation and cooperation is
urgent.
I got off a phone call this morning--and I am sure all 100 of my
colleagues are making calls like this. I got on the phone with my
fellow Virginia Senator, Mr. Warner, to talk to Virginia's hospitals.
Now, Virginia is a State that, economically, is pretty well off. It
generally tends to have top-quarter per-capita income for a significant
metropolitan area, but the stories from my hospitals were just,
frankly, shocking.
They can't get tests to test patients who are presenting with
symptoms of COVID-19. If they have tests, they don't have the swabs to
administer the test or they don't have some of the chemical components
needed so that once a swab is taken, they can run the test to determine
whether somebody has the virus or not.
They don't have masks. Hospitals were telling me that masks, which
they would normally buy for about $1 apiece, are now being charged at
$9 apiece with severely limited quantities.
Major hospitals in a major metropolitan area like Northern Virginia,
on the testing front--one of my hospitals said they got enough tests
from their main supplier to test 40 people. That lasted for about 2
days. And when they said ``We need more tests,'' the supplier said
``Well, look, we only have so much that we can distribute. That is all
you get.''
When I heard this story, one after the next--and I know I live in a
nation with not only the best healthcare providers but the best
healthcare institutions in the world--I had to ask myself: Where am I?
Is this the United States of America, where a hospital treating people
on a global pandemic cannot get a mask, cannot get a swab, cannot get a
test? Why are nations like South Korea and Australia and the United
Kingdom so much more able to do things this country should be able to
do?
I don't think we should become normalized or just accept that. I
think this is so profound a question about why this Nation, with the
best healthcare providers and the best healthcare institutions in the
world, is so far behind other nations. So let me offer these
recommendations--blunt recommendations--for the road ahead.
First, in the words of the Hippocratic Oath, do no harm. The
administration lost 6 to 8 weeks in responding to this crisis--critical
time that was used productively by other nations--because the President
continually downplayed the threat of COVID-19.
No American has a louder microphone than he does, and again and again
he downplayed the threat, suggested it was contained, suggested
everyone would be tested, suggested it was a hoax, and suggested the
Democrats or the Chinese or the media were blowing it out of
proportion. Whether his comments were due to ignorance or a political
desire to hide bad news is irrelevant.
I was shocked that the President submitted a budget to Congress on
February 10, when the virus's global spread was clear to all, that
dramatically cut funding for key public health agencies--the NIH, CDC,
HHS--and our investments in global partnerships like the World Health
Organization. The White House foolishly eliminated the global health
security team at the National Security Council that was set up after
the Ebola crisis to practically deal with pandemics like COVID-19.
I remain stunned--stunned--that the President's lawyers are still in
court all over this country attempting to repeal the Affordable Care
Act to take healthcare away from millions of Americans. There is never
a good time--never--to take an ax to the public health infrastructure
and scheme to take away people's health insurance, but there is surely
no worse time to do it--to take an ax to the public health
infrastructure and take away people's health insurance--than during a
global pandemic.
So my recommendations here are pretty simple. Quit lying and
downplaying the threat. Let the trusted scientists and public health
leaders in your administration take center stage.
In recent days, the President seems to have adopted this approach,
thank goodness, and it is long overdue. Congress should ignore the
President's budget that urged foolish cuts to our public health
infrastructure, and the
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administration should cease efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care
Act.
One more thing: Quit the inflammatory China-bashing. Did this virus
originate in China? Yes. But, Mr. President, that does not excuse your
weeks and weeks of tweeting lies and misinformation about the virus,
while the leaders of other nations were taking steps to make sure their
populations could be safe.
The fact that the virus originated in China does not excuse the
massive missteps that have led to the United States being so far behind
other nations in the world in the ability to provide testing--basic
testing--to citizens, including citizens who have serious signs of
illness. The President's decision to call this the China virus or Wuhan
virus or other epithets that he and members of his team have used are a
crass effort to deflect blame away from the acceptance of
responsibility that a President should have.
The buck stops with you, Mr. President. You cannot blame this on
anyone else. You have to own responsibility. You should stop
inflammatory China-bashing that is exposing Asian Americans in this
country to prejudice.
The second thing we need to do is continue to focus, first and
foremost, on managing the public health crisis presented by COVID-19.
The economic dislocation is significant. We are working on a package
with respect to that now. I am going to talk about it in a minute, but
no economic intervention will work if the American public continues to
lack confidence in our public health response. And a strong public
health response that will effectively manage the spread of this virus
and coordinate medical care for those affected will be the single best
strategy for enabling the economy to get back on track.
To accomplish this public health goal, we need to have strong policy
at the Federal level to make--continue to make--science-based
recommendations on the extent and timing of social distancing
guidelines.
We need to overcome the shockingly poor start to testing Americans
for the virus. Testing helps us flatten the curve of the infection so
that our health system is not overwhelmed, and it also helps reduce
anxiety by giving people information about their status so they know
what to do.
Americans are used to being tested. If we feel ill, we go to a
doctor. We get a test to see if we have a flu. We get a test to see if
we have pneumonia. We get our children tested to see if they have strep
throat. We are used to this, and when we see it happening around the
globe, and when we hear the President and Vice President say that
everybody will get tested, but when people call their healthcare
providers and are told that there are no tests or see drive-thru
testing sites, such as ones we had in Hampton Roads, shut down after a
day and a half because they ran out of tests, it tremendously raises
their anxiety.
We need to continue the good work that is already being done to
accelerate the development of a safe and effective vaccine. We need to
make sure that our hospitals and healthcare providers have the
resources they need to treat sick people and protect their frontline
health workers.
Finally, this is looking down the road a bit, but I think it is
important that we think about it now. Policymakers should try to
develop the science-based criteria that will enable them to confidently
tell Americans when it is time to return to normal social and economic
activity. I remember President Bush doing that at some point after 9/
11. He said: It is now safe. It is time for Americans to go back to
normal, everyday activity. A strong signal of that type, when it is
warranted by science, will be critical--critical--to our recovery. That
day may be weeks or months away, but developing the criteria that we
can agree on that should be the signal for a return to relevant
normalcy is something we should all be working on right now.
Third, we should make full use of State and local governments.
Polling shows that Americans are skeptical about what they hear about
this virus from President Trump and, indeed, Washington. But the same
poll shows that they do have trust in how State and local officials are
handling this crisis. Use the network of State and local officials to
communicate clear messages. Continuously seek their input on how their
schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and local economies are affected.
That is what I am doing every day, and I suspect every Member of the
Senate is doing the same thing--conference calls with leaders around my
State to make sure that we are doing the things that are most helpful.
And we should reality test any legislation, especially an economic
package, with these leaders to make sure it is responsive to the real
needs they are seeing on the ground.
Fourth, Congress needs to move promptly to pass this strong economic
package, backstopping the American economy from being ravaged by COVID-
19.
In 2008, structural issues like the accumulation of debt, bad public
policy leaving huge swaths of economic transactions unregulated, and
predatory mortgage practices helped bring down not only the American
but the global financial system.
Today, the American economy has been performing relatively well, and
it now labors under a severe healthcare shock. There is reason to
believe that, once we get the healthcare strategy right, we will be
poised for the economy to resume its upward trajectory. But we must
provide protection and support in the meantime.
I believe that the focus of an economic package should be workers and
small businesses. They are the most vulnerable to the current challenge
and most in need of intervention.
This is the message that I am hearing again and again as I talk to
Virginia residents and business leaders. I had a wonderful conversation
with the president of my statewide chamber of commerce the other day,
and he said candidly: Look, more of our members are actually medium and
large businesses, but the most important thing you can do is focus on
the needs of small businesses and their employees.
I appreciated that he was advocating even for a business sector that
isn't the core of his membership, but this is what he was hearing and
what I think most of us are hearing.
I support direct cash payments to low- and middle-income Americans
and their dependents to help them through this crisis, and it is nice
to hear there may be some agreement on that. I support strategies to
provide grants and loans to small businesses, particularly if they use
those resources to keep employees on the payroll. I hope direct support
to individuals and small businesses will be the heart of the economic
package that the Senate, the White House, and the House put together.
Now, for the larger businesses and industry sectors who need Federal
help, we have to stand ready to assist, but if we are to invest in
these businesses yet again, a few years after providing them with
massive and--in my view--unnecessary tax breaks, we must not simply
rescue them but demand that they reform, and our investments must be
designed to keep workers on payrolls to the maximum extent possible.
The Business Roundtable, an influential voice for the business
community, said last year that businesses need to expand their
priorities beyond shareholder concerns and invest in employees by
compensating them fairly, providing important benefits, and supporting
communities they work in. I couldn't agree more. These businesses
employ many Americans and deliver us important goods and services, but
if American taxpayers are stepping in to cover their losses, I think it
is fair to expect and, indeed, require that these businesses channel
the benefits toward people who are on their payroll, who work for wages
and salaries, not those who live off investment income.
I will do all I can in the coming days to help shape our economic
package to make it responsive to these goals.
Fifth--and in this I echo some of the comments made by my colleague
from Missouri--the crisis does raise long-term questions that must be
addressed going forward. We have to have real discussions about the
virtues and disadvantages of global interconnectedness. Better travel
leads to economic growth and a better understanding of the world, and
it also facilitates the spread of viruses. Instantaneous global
communication networks are an economic plus but increase vulnerability
to cyber attack.
How do we increase American resilience to these threats without
inhibiting our economic prospects? There
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are elements of our supply chains--pharmaceuticals and medical products
and supplies in particular--that must be viewed through a national
security lens and progressively brought back to this country to enhance
safety and an adequate supply of supplies in times like this.
A second long-term question that has been raised for years by my
Virginia colleague Senator Warner deals with the new reality of how
Americans work. Many of the people most affected by this shock would be
part-time and gig workers. The safety-net mechanisms that our policies
provide for full-time workers who get a W-2 every year are not as
available to the increasing percentage of the American workforce who
are in multiple part-time jobs without benefits or who work as
independent contractors or are otherwise self-employed.
In addition to making sure that the economic relief package provides
assistance to this large group of Americans, we have to examine our
workforce policies so that these workers also have a social safety net
to fall back on during times of crisis.
Finally, every American needs to do their part to confront this
crisis. The best way to slow the spread of COVID-19 and minimize its
impact to individuals, to our healthcare system, and to our economy is
to adhere to science-based social distancing and personal hygiene
recommendations in our everyday lives.
Because America is not an authoritarian nation, there are some
options used by other nations that will not likely be used here. Our
public health measures will depend upon the cooperation and adherence
of every single person. Sacrifice is hard, but a modest sacrifice in
the near term can help save the lives of people we love.
So I implore every Virginian and every American to follow the
recommendations we get from our public health officials and find ways
to safely reach out and connect with friends and family during this
challenging time.
To my colleagues: We must rise to meet this challenge. This is one of
the moments for which we were destined to be in the Senate. The people
we serve are relying on us to calmly and promptly address a grave
health crisis with the tools needed to keep families safe and protect
the American economy. It is a serious responsibility. May we all live
up to it.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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